Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
The Art of Happiness
Tenzin Gyatso and Howard C. Cutler's 1998 dialogue — practical happiness from a secular-Buddhist perspective
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Art of Happiness (Late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Impersonal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Experience |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Art of Happiness
The 1998 popular-publishing moment of Buddhist-Western dialogue.
Space
The Art of Happiness
The trans-Pacific-Atlantic conversation of general-readership readers.
Matter
The Art of Happiness
The embodied general reader whose practical happiness the book addresses.
Observer
The Art of Happiness
The general-reader as proper addressee; the Dalai Lama and Cutler as dialogue-collaborators.
Energy
The Art of Happiness
The practical-emotional-cognitive energies of happiness-cultivation.
Information
The Art of Happiness
The practical-philosophical-psychological content of the dialogue.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The book has been variously assessed — defenders see proper popular-philosophical-psychological work, critics (within and outside Tibetan Buddhism) see oversimplification of the Buddhist tradition for Western consumption.